Boys golf: Vasudeva, Vernon Hills look to carry on winning tradition
Rohan Vasudeva handled pressure on the golf course all summer long.
Now comes another challenge for the Vernon Hills senior.
He serves as team captain for a Cougars squad that has won eight regional championships in a row, something the A-student and four-year varsity golfer is well aware of. Last year's seniors, including captain Sujay Voleti, and past team captains Brian Favia and Justin Park have already contacted Vasudeva.
"They've all told me, 'Don't be the captain that loses it,' " Vasudeva said.
Vasudeva is ready to help the Cougars carry on their winning tradition and believes his teammates are up for the challenge too. Vasudeva and junior Gavin Gilfand are Vernon Hills' only returning starters, however. Five Cougars graduated.
"We graduated a bunch of kids that had a lot of success at state and, certainly, regionals," said Shawn Healey, who begins his 20th season and is the only head coach in the history of Vernon Hills' program.
The good new is, the Cougars host a Class 2A regional at White Deer Run Golf Club.
"We're at White Deer Run this year, which is perfect for us," said Vasudeva, who was a member of the Cougars' state teams his freshman and sophomore years. "I think our team will be in great shape by then. Getting out of regionals is always the goal, but for us, winning regionals just has that little extra incentive."
Vasudeva will be the Cougars' No. 1 player. After being Vernon Hills' lone state qualifier last fall, he's coming off the best summer of his golf career, as he finished second in the IJGA Player-of-the-Year point standings. He won two tournaments and had top-three finishes in 4-5 others, he said. He shot 2 under to 3 over in most tournaments.
He's proud of his growth since last year.
"I wouldn't have thought back in the winter that I'd be in these tournaments with other really good, ranked players," Vasudeva said. "I never thought of myself as one of these really great players, but I found myself in the final group or close to the final group with a lot of these good players, and that surprised me a lot."
Vasudeva took advantage of the new PGA TOUR Superstore in Vernon Hills. He pounded balls regularly in the indoor hitting bays there.
"After school, I was always there just working on my swing," Vasudeva said. "I think that off-season work really helped me get into season form earlier on."
Other Cougars will be looking to complement Vasudeva this season. The only other seniors are Russell Swansen and Jordan Krasner, who played golf as a freshman but focused on baseball last two falls.
"He really wanted to play," Healey said.
Juniors Luke Brann, Tyler Svrusis and Sam Devin are also in the varsity-lineup mix, as are sophomores D.J. Josephson and A.J. Kaprosy. Andrew Benton, who served as Antioch's head coach the last four years, has joined Healey as an assistant.
"We've had a nice run," Healey said. "We've had a lot of good kids come through that have really worked hard and that have loved playing golf. They're like the equivalent of gym rats. We'll finish practice, I'll be ready to go home, and they'll be like, 'Coach, can we just stay for another hour?' because they love it."
Vasudeva, who's in Healey's AP Calculus class, knows numbers. He's seen good scores from his teammates.
"I think a lot of them have the potential to be good," Vasudeva said. "I played with a lot of them over the summer. What I like most about them is that they're very levelheaded. I know when I was that age I was throwing clubs and that kind of thing. Their highs aren't too high, and their lows aren't too low. They're very calm on the golf course, and I think that's a key thing, especially as we get later in the season."